


Better

by ChirpB



Series: Say My Name [6]
Category: ATEEZ (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Best Friends, College, Decay (OC) - Freeform, Explosions, Fire, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Head Injury, Hurt/Comfort, I'm Sorry, Injury, It's all okay, Jongho Best Boy, M/M, Minig-centric, No Beta, Not Beta Read, OC is the vilain, Sad, Superheroes, We Die Like Men, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-16
Updated: 2020-02-16
Packaged: 2021-02-27 19:47:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,887
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22751221
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChirpB/pseuds/ChirpB
Summary: Mingi’s vision began to blur from tears that hadn’t yet spilled. He moved his eye contact away from the older two and stared at the sky.“I...I think I messed up,” he could feel their intense stares, even though he wasn’t looking.“I think I messed up big time.”---------------------Mingi is a hero named Phoenix.He thought he had to get better.(!!!Please read previous works in the series before you read this!!!)
Relationships: Choi San/Jung Wooyoung, Jeong Yunho & Song Mingi, Kim Hongjoong & Song Mingi, Kim Hongjoong/Park Seonghwa, Park Seonghwa & Song Mingi
Series: Say My Name [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1560964
Comments: 10
Kudos: 106





	Better

**Author's Note:**

> I FINALLY FINISHED IT!!!
> 
> This one is a bit different with the formatting.
> 
> Let me know what you think. I'm not too sure how I like this. It's very different from what I originally had planned.
> 
> Enjoy!

The team didn’t know who this guy was supposed to be, but Mingi was getting really pissed off. 

Seonghwa, Hongjoong, Yeosang, and Jongho were busy fighting a different guy on the other side of the city, so the rest were stuck with this random guy in the middle of the street.

The guy seemed to be telekinetic, or something like that. He was lifting a bunch of different objects from around the surrounding area and flinging them at the heroes.

The guy was causing trouble earlier, but disappeared, so Yunho had to be brought along to track the guy down. Mingi still didn’t really know how exactly the older’s power worked, but they ended up finding the trouble maker.

Wooyoung went to stop him by wrapping him in metal, but the guy just stopped it and flung it at San before Wooyoung could stop it. 

And that was why they had Yunho. He healed San and the water hero got back in the fight. 

The whole fight consisted of the guy floating in the air and San and Wooyoung flying up on their little platforms to try and attack him, while Mingi and Yunho were stuck on the ground. There wasn’t much Yunho could do except wait to heal or wait to track, so he was fine. Mingi, however, was getting antsy being unable to help from his spot on the ground.

Mingi wished so much that he could use his power to fly like most of the others could, but all he could do was shoot fireballs and hope it hit his target.

The villain ended up slamming Wooyoung to the ground with a bunch of bricks he got from a nearby building. The younger hero fell to the ground hard enough to make a dent. Yunho immediately ran towards him to heal him while San managed to hold his own, with the help of Mingi’s occasional fireball.

“Prowler, how is he?” Mingi yelled towards Yunho.

“He’ll be okay in a second, it wasn’t actually that bad. He’s just disoriented and has a broken rib,” Yunho informed.

Mingi thought Wooyoung must’ve made himself fall into some sort of metal to help. He honestly didn’t know how Wooyoung’s power worked, so he just rolled with it.

After a couple more seconds of San flying back and forth on his water pad and shooting little water spikes at the guy, Wooyoung ran up behind Mingi.

“Phoenix, I have an Idea,” The younger said, explaining that he was going to take Mingi up with him on another metal disc and would help him fly around the guy. Mingi agreed and hopped on a small disc that the younger made. 

The two flew up with slight concern from Yunho, but no restrictions from the older.

The villain’s attention almost immediately turned to the two newcomers and he began throwing more bricks and trash cans their direction. 

Mingi sort of struggled to stay on his disc as he trusted Wooyoung to keep him out of harm’s way.

Mingi occasionally shot fireballs at the man, but he kept dodging. San would trade off with him in trying to get the guy so they didn’t accidentally cancel each other out like they’ve done before.

After several tiring minutes of flying around, Wooyoung looked like he was becoming a little stiff and that worried Mingi. Everyone on the team knew that Wooyoung would start to lock up if he used his power too much. The constant action of moving Mingi around must’ve been taking a toll on Wooyoung.

Mingi shot a couple more fireballs at the villain and readied another. He wasn’t able to shoot that one because his disc suddenly stuttered.

Mingi frantically looked towards where Woyooung was to see the younger now on his knees with his eyebrows drawn in concentration.

This wasn’t getting anywhere.

Mingi pressed a finger to his earpiece to call Wooyoung.

“Brass get me closer, then you’ll be able to relax, okay?”

Wooyoung didn’t answer verbally, but Mingi looked over and saw the other nod in confirmation. Mingi’s disc suddenly lurched forward towards the villain.

Once Mingi thought he was close enough, he lept off towards the villain who was currently distracted by San.

The guy was standing on a wooden pallet thing that he was levitating himself. There definitely wasn’t enough room for more than one person, especially if another person was as big as Mingi.

Mingi latched onto the guy’s shoulders and the guy began to lose balance and freak out.

The pallet fell out from under them and the two plummeted down.

Mingi held onto the man as well as he could and tried to force the man under him before they hit the ground.

It only half worked.

Mingi couldn’t get the villain under him all the way and ended up slamming his left side into the asphalt.

He felt something crack and tried to roll to the side to take pressure off of his side.

He was lying on his back when he heard coughing come from next to him.

He could also hear some shouts of his name, but his ears were ringing a little too much for his to register it.

“Ow,” Mingi groaned out.

He tried to make his way into a standing position while keeping his left arm close to his body. It hurt like a-

Something suddenly slammed into Mingi right as he gained his balance, throwing him into the side of a nearby building.

His breath got knocked out of him on impact. He squeezed his eyes shut to try and block out the pain and his swimming vision.

Mingi slowly recovered and opened his eyes to see a concerned Yunho looking him over with glowing green eyes and his other two teammates fighting in the background.

“Sorry, hyung,” Mingi said to Yunho before standing up, swaying a little bit.

“Hey, you shouldn’t move. I barely fixed your arm, you have a couple broken ribs. Let me-”

Mingi pushed Yunho out of the way as several chunks of road were thrown their way.

Mingi rolled to avoid them, pain rushing through his lungs.

He quickly stood up and tried to locate the villain.

He noticed San lying on his back with his eyes squeezed shut, arms clutching at his stomach.

Wooyoung seemed to be struggling at getting the guy’s attention. His face, or what Mingi could see of it, was dripping with sweat and his loose strands of hair were plastered on his forehead.

“Prowler! Help Crescent!” Mingi yelled to the eldest.

Yunho stood up and nodded, quickly making his way towards the other.

Mingi turned his attention back to the situation and saw Wooyoung get his knee blown out by a random flying piece of cement.

He saw the villain surrounding himself with swirling debris and trash. 

He raised his arm to shoot a fireball at the villain, but quickly realized that wouldn’t work.

Mingi sucked in a deep breath and rushed into the debris tornado thing.

He was hit with several rocks and pieces of trash, but nothing that would hurt him too much. He quickly saw the villain at the center of it and lit his arms on fire and charged.

The villain only noticed Mingi after he got too close.

Mingi was able to grab the guy’s biceps and burn through the shirt he wore. The man cried out in pain and the tornado immediately stopped, debris falling everywhere.

The man fell to the ground with Mingi on top of him then kicked Mingi off by sticking his feet onto Mingi’s stomach and pushing him off.

Mingi grunted as he hit the ground, his ribs aching. He was about to stand up when he realized that the villain kicked him onto a wooden pallet. The villain noticed.

Before he could jump off, the villain made the pallet fly into the air and Mingi felt himself freefall for what felt like the billionth time that day.

Noticing a rooftop approaching fast, Mingi squeezed his eyes shut to try and avoid as much pain as he could. 

His back exploded with pain and he rolled several times before his body finally came to a stop.

He knew that he was on his back, but he didn’t want to open his eyes and see the damage that was done.

_ “This wouldn’t have happened if he could fly, or something, like the others,”  _ Mingi thought to himself.

He tried to sit up as best he could, but could only get onto his elbows before pain flared once again. 

He didn’t really want to risk having a broken back and making worse and harder for Yunho to heal. He’s bothered Yunho enough about that recently anyways.

Mingi tried to shake the self-deprecating thoughts out of his head, but it was a little difficult knowing that he probably didn’t help the situation he was just launched out of.

His earpiece started to buzz, indicating he had a call, so he tapped on it to answer.

“Y-yeah?” Mingi struggled to use his voice with all the pain he was in.

_ “Phoenix! Are you alive?”  _ Mingi winced at the loud voice of Yunho in his ear.

He almost nodded, but realized Yunho couldn’t see him. “Yes, mom, I’m alive, I think.”

There was a sigh of relief from the other end of the line,  _ “Thank goodness. I was worried when you just got launched away. It would’ve been fine if it was Phantom, Crescent, or Brass, but it was you and I was so worried.” _

Mingi sat up a little straighter, wincing. “What’s the situation there, are you guys okay?”

_ “Yeah, we’re fine. The others made it over here. You actually did a lot of damage to the guy. He was barely standing once you were gone.” _

He let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. He let out a weak chuckle, “Good. You can track me, yeah?”

_ “Yeah, I can.” _

“Good, because I can’t really move and would appreciate it if you come and fix me as much as you can before you lose energy and pass out.”

There was a chuckle on the other end. “ _ Sounds good. Don’t die while I’m on my way,”  _ Yunho said.

“Yeah, yeah. See ya,” With that, Mingi hung up and went back to focusing on his pain.

His whole body was aching, but his back and ribs seemed to be hurting the most.

He laid back down and stared up at the sky. 

It was a nice day. Blue skies and a couple fluffy clouds here and there. Just how Mingi liked it.

He closed his eyes so he could maybe rest a little bit, but then he heard the sound of footsteps coming closer to him.

Mingi opened his eyes and propped himself up on his elbows to see who it was. There was no way Yunho got there so fast.

It wasn’t Yunho.

Mingi spotted the person, or woman, walking towards him.

She had a short pixie cut of black hair and startling green eyes. She looked like she was a little older, maybe in her thirties.

“Uh...hi?” Mingi said, very unsure.

“Hello, you’re Phoenix, aren’t you?” The woman’s tone was lower than he’d expected.

Mingi nodded, “I am. Why are you on the roof?”

She let out a chuckle, “I could ask you the same thing.”

“That’s fair.”

“Anyways, I noticed you fighting that villain earlier and thought I could be of some help,” The woman said, catching Mingi’s attention.

“What?”

“Your fight. You don’t seem like you can do much but destroy with your power. I mean, compared to the rest of your team.”

Mingi stared at the woman, eyes wide. What was he supposed to say in this kind of situation?

“I can help you become more powerful, if you’d like. Not just in force, but abilities as well,” The woman continued.

Mingi swallowed. “I-I don’t-”

“Shhh, you don’t need to think too hard about it. You wish you could fly, right? So you wouldn’t get injured like you just did?”

Mingi didn’t realize that he was nodding and agreeing with her.

She did have a point and Mingi had been thinking about it too. He doesn’t really do much other than burn villains. He made Klepto explode for crying out loud. It probably wouldn’t have happened if he was able to control his power better.

“If you agree to let me help you, I definitely do,” The woman said in a somewhat teasing tone, “All you have to do,” she paused, “is say, ‘Help me’ and you’ll have the power to not be destructive.”

Mingi’s head moved on its own, nodding in confirmation, but his brain was screaming at him and asking him if he really wanted this.

“I’m going to need verbal consent, dearie.”

Mingi’s mouth opened on its own and he heard himself say, “Help me,” but it was almost like he was underwater.

The woman smiled and reached her hand out to Mingi.

He raised a shaky hand and the woman grasped it.

His body immediately tensed up, causing his back to hurt more. He let a pained hiss and the woman just smiled at him.

Her smile suddenly seemed so menacing.

She quickly pulled her hand away from his and grabbed his upward facing palm. She held her long nail up to it and gave it a quick slice. Mingi winced at the sight, his body not knowing what to do or how to react.

She then dropped his hand and cut her palm as well. The lady picked Mingi’s bleeding hand back up and grasped it, bleeding palm against bleeding palm.

Mingi felt heat flood through him, burning his insides.

He squeezed his eyes shut to block out the pain racing through him, but it did little to ease the discomfort.

After what seemed like hours, but was probably no more than several seconds, the woman let go.

Mingi’s hand fell limply to his side, as if all of his energy had been drained from him. He opened his eyes and realized that he wasn’t propped up on one elbow anymore. He was just lying on the rooftop, staring up at a still blue sky.

He looked around for the lady, but she was walking near the edge of the rooftop already. 

Mingi tried to use his voice to stop her, but sound wouldn’t come out.

She seemed to sense him trying to grab her attention though, because she turned around and smirked at him.

“Have fun. Havoc will love what I’ve done with you,” She said, jumping off of the side of the roof.

Mingi froze at the mention of the man who had been making their lives harder than it needed to be. That was an understatement.

The heat that had been running through Mingi’s body had suddenly stopped and he almost felt cold. He laid his head down on the rooftop and closed his eyes, trying to mentally go through everything that had just happened.

He didn’t know how long he stayed like that, but there were more footsteps near him.

“Phoenix?” Mingi opened his eyes and moved his head so he could see who it was.

Yunho and Seonghwa were quickly walking towards him.

He wanted to smile, but the situation made it so his face wouldn’t even feign the emotion.

“How bad?” Mingi asked Yunho as the two got closer.

The healer’s glowing green eyes seemed to be scanning him.

“Several broken ribs, a couple sprained vertebrae,” that would explain the back pain, “and...oh?”

Mingi looked up at Yunho with a questioning look.

“How’d you cut your hand like that? It looks really abnormal,” Yunho asked.

Seonghwa crouched down next to Mingi’s side and picked up his arm, looking at the small, still-bleeding injury.

“Phoenix, what is this?” The oldest asked.

Mingi’s vision began to blur from tears that hadn’t yet spilled. He moved his eye contact away from the older two and stared at the sky.

“I...I think I messed up,” he could feel their intense stares, even though he wasn’t looking.

“I think I messed up big time.”

\-------------------------------------

Mingi sat on the sectional leaning his elbows on his knees with his head hung low. He had changed into more comfortable clothes. He knew he was going to be chilling at the house for a while.

Yunho was asleep next to him because of how much the healer exerted himself during the fight.

Yeosang and Jongho had to take San and Wooyoung to school because Wooyoung actually had an exam while the others had classes.

“Mingi,” Hongjoong said.

Mingi looked up and saw Hongjoong sit on the carpeted floor in front of where Mingi was sitting. He gave the leader a small smile.

“I’m sorry,” he said, barely above a whisper.

Hongjoong placed a hand on Mingi’s knee. “As long as you know what you did wasn’t good, then I think I forgive you,” Hongjoong said softly.

Mingi didn’t realize he was tearing up a little bit until he felt something wet fall onto his hands. Hongjoong scooted closer to the taller boy and tried to get him to look at his face.

Mingi never really saw Hongjoong look so small before, but at that moment he looked tiny.

“You’re small, hyung,” Mingi said with a small smirk, earning him a slap on the knee from the other. Hongjoong laughed a bit.

“Seonghwa’s coming in a second. When he does, I want you to tell us everything you remember about what happened, okay?”

Mingi nodded.

A couple minutes later, Seonghwa entered the room with three mugs of something in his hands. He sat down on the couch next to Mingi. Yunho only shifted a little bit.

“Should we make him move to a bed?” Seonghwa asked, handing the other two the mugs. Mingi saw hot chocolate and he was grateful.

Hongjoong waved his hand, “Pft, nah. He’s not gonna wake up even if we try to wake him up.”

“That’s fair.”

Mingi was really hoping that the two wouldn’t bring up what happened, but he knew it was inevitable.

“Mingi, explain everything, yeah?” Hongjoong said.

Mingi nodded and went into his explanation a little reluctantly. He explained how he got onto the roof, earning him a sound of empathy from Seonghwa. He told them about the strange woman and what she told him. He told them that he didn’t know why he agreed. He told them what the woman looked like and-

“Wait, explain her appearance again,” Hongjoong told him. 

Mingi looked back and forth between the two and told them more about her appearance.

“Hongjoong, you don’t think it’s  _ her _ do you?” Seonghwa asked.

Mingi felt very confused about the situation, but his hyungs’ reactions made him more concerned than he already was.

“I think it was her. From what Mingi’s saying, it sounds so much like her. That isn’t good,” Hongjoong.

Mingi looked back and forth between them, “Wanna tell me what’s going on?”

They both looked at Mingi with serious expressions.

“Her name is Decay. She works for Havoc,” Hongjoong explained.

“She did mention that Havoc will love what she did with me, or something like that,” Mingi told them.

The two shared a look. “She’s pretty powerful. You thought Plague was powerful just because of his touch, she’s much worse. She does need permission, but she is very persuasive,” Seonghwa sighed, “We can’t tell you everything yet, but we have faced her before, and it wasn’t good. We survived though.”

Mingi gulped, “Oh.”

“Try not to worry too much. I’m just gonna tell you this now though: She kind of does the opposite of what her name entails. She builds up people’s energy until they can’t handle it anymore,” Hongjoong explained.

Mingi felt like his breath was knocked out of him. “What’s going to happen to me then?” 

“It’s going to hurt, but we know how to prevent it from hurting you too much, okay?” Seonghwa said.

“Do you actually? Or are you just telling me that so I feel better?” Mingi asked.

Seonghwa gave him a sad smile. “Your energy is going to build up and it’s going to hurt like hell, Mingi. We have faith in you, okay?”

Mingi leaned back on the couch.

“I think it would be better if you went to sleep, yeah? I know it’s only about four, but sleep might help,” Hongjoong suggested.

Mingi nodded and stood up, going to head to his room. His hot chocolate long forgotten.

Seonghwa grabbed his hand before he walked away. Mingi turned to look at him, tears forming in his eyes.

“It’ll be okay. I can feel it.”

Mingi nodded and headed away.

Seonghwa turned to Hongjoong with worry in his eyes.

“His hand was super hot, Hongjoong. What should we do?” Seonghwa asked, seeming almost panicked.

Hongjoong rested his hand on his boyfriend’s knee. “It’ll be okay. Mingi’s tough. He’ll be fine.”

\----------------------------------

Yunho had heard his hyungs talking about Mingi and what was up with him, but it didn’t really register because he was mostly asleep.

After another hour after Mingi had gone to sleep in his room, Yunho got up from his spot on the couch and headed to his best friend’s room to sleep in his bed with him.

He really needed an actual bed after all of the healing and energy he expended that day.

Once he got into the younger’s room, he went over to the side of the queen bed that Mingi wasn’t on and set his blanket down.

He paused for a second, thinking it was weird that Mingi wasn’t sprawled out like a starfish as he usually was. Yunho would just have to shove him to the side, and the younger wouldn’t even be close to waking up.

He shrugged it off and hopped into the unoccupied spot.

Yunho shifted around until he felt comfortable enough.

He ended up being the most comfortable on his back and brought an arm up to put under his head.

His hand barely brushed against Mingi’s arm and Yunho had to pull away from the intense heat. He felt like he’d been burned.

Yunho pushed himself up onto his elbows and stared with wide eyes at his best friend. 

He could actually feel the heat radiating off of the younger’s body. It usually radiated heat, but not this much. This was almost scalding.

“Mingi. Mingi, you gotta wake up. Mingi!” Yunho almost tried to shake the younger, but there wasn’t going to be a way to wake him up without touching him.

Yunho was tempted to hit him with a pillow, but he noticed that Mingi’s breathing was beginning to become extremely heavy.

He was supposed to be the team’s healer, so maybe he could figure out what was wrong.

Yunho activated his power and tried to get a picture of what was happening inside his best friend’s body, but all he could see was everything being normal.

Yunho never told anyone on his team, or any other hero, but everyone had a little core inside of them that looked like a little ball of light to Yunho.

Seonghwa’s tended to be a bit darker because of his ability. Yeosang’s looked like his smoke, but glowy. Jongho’s just looked like a throbbing ball of red. Mingi’s was usually pretty bright, basically like a fireball.

But now it looked like that fire was spreading and expanding.

Yunho got out of the room as fast as he could and tried to find the older two on the team.

“Hyungs!” Yunho shouted out.

Hongjoong and Seonghwa were luckily sitting on the couch on their own laptops and stood up just as Yunho shouted.

“Mingi’s overheating! His power looks like it’s spreading throughout his entire body! I don’t know what to do,” Yunho was borderline panicking.

Seonghwa sprinted past Yunho and into the hall leading to Mingi’s room. Yunho looked from the hall to Hongjoong with wide eyes.

“Hyung, what’s happening?” Yunho asked

Hongjoong just shook his head and sprinted after his boyfriend.

Once everyone was gathered by the door to Mingi’s room, they all saw the younger lying on his back. It seemed like all of his muscles were tensed up, almost like he was being tazed.

His eyes were glowing a magnificent orange color that was brighter than his usual glow. His eyes were flickering open and closed at a rapid pace.

He let out several groans in between the heavy breathing he was doing.

Seonghwa turned to the other two. “Did Jongho come home yet? We need someone to get Mingi outside and away from the house,” he said urgently.

Yunho just shrugged and shook his head. He couldn’t form words.

“Go check the house!” Hongjoong urged.

Yunho nodded and ran around the house to find the youngest.

He sprinted to the basement where the younger was most likely to be. “JONGHO!” Yunho yelled as loud as he could.

He didn’t see him in the main room, so he assumed the younger was probably in the weight room.

Yunho heard something metal fall to the ground with a loud thunk in the direction of the weight room.

Jongho popped his head out with a panicked look, “What? I just got here!”

Yunho was trying to catch his breath a bit, “Something’s wrong with Mingi and we need you!”

\--------------------------------------------------

Mingi felt like he was on fire. 

Which was weird because he can usually stand it when he himself is on fire.

His limbs were burning and his chest felt like it was collapsing in on itself.

He could vaguely hear what was happening around him, his vision seeming to glow a bright orange. Yunho was panicking, then the oldest two of the group were panicking, then Jongho was suddenly there too.

Mingi wanted to tell all of them to not touch him. He knew he couldn’t control his temperature at that moment, but he couldn’t formulate the words.

His gut twisted with a heat that felt like lava.

Suddenly the place on his hand where he touched the woman, Decay, felt disgusting to him.

He really did make a big mistake.

“-ngi! Mingi! Can you hear us at all?”

Mingi tried to focus on the voice and will himself to nod, but all that came out was a pained groan, his eyes squeezing shut.

“Mingi, please try to cool your skin down for as long as you can. Jongho’s going to take you outside,” the voice informed. Mingi thought it sounded a bit like Seonghwa, but he wasn’t sure.

Why was he being taken outside?

He couldn’t think of why, but he tried to calm himself down enough so he could control his heat the best he could.

He focused on his core, where he could feel the burning the most, and forced as much energy as he could there.

It burned.

It really hurt.

Mingi heard himself let out a cry of pain and someone instructing Jongho to hurry.

Mingi was so focused on the pain and controlling the heat that he didn’t even register when cooler air hit his skin (not like he could feel it that much anyways).

Mingi let out another cry of pain as the heat began to spread again.

“Hold on, hyung,” Jongho said, seeming a little more out of breath than normal.

Mingi felt like he was going to explode.

That thought made him snap his eyes open and push himself out of Jongho’s arms, causing him to fall onto his hands and knees.

“Hyung!” 

Mingi looked up at Jongho, vision flickering between bright orange and night sky.

“Run. Get away!” Mingi pleaded with the youngest.

Jongho’s eyes were wide and looked scared. Mingi gave him a pained smile and tried his best to stand up.

His body was slowly covering itself in flames as Mingi lost more control. 

He was barely standing, his upper body slouching over.

His chest was constricting more than it ever had, making him curl in on himself. He let out a whimper.

If his body weren’t so hot, there would be tears falling down his face from the pain.

Mingi straightened himself and opened his eyes to try and look at Jongho.

He tried to take a deep breath. “Go get...get the others!” He yelled to Jongho.

He squeezed his eyes shut again as another wave of heat crashed through him. 

He really hoped that Jongho was out of harm’s way. He walked further away into the grassy area way behind the house, just before the treeline.

Mingi let out a breath of relief as he let go of the little control he had over the fire in him.

\---------------------------------------------

Jongho didn’t mean to drop Mingi, but Mingi did push himself out of his hold.

He just wanted to work out. Now he was watching one of his hyungs burn up and suffer.

This was not how his night was supposed to go at all.

He had just finished a test and went back to his dorm so he could nap for a bit. He came to the house, wanting to use the weights. Instead, he got to the house and was immediately called to bring Mingi outside.

Jongho had no idea what was happening with his hyung, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t deeply concerned.

When Mingi pushed himself out of Jongho’s hold, Jongho couldn’t do anything but stare at how Mingi’s eyes were flashing between bright orange and his normal eyes.

Mingi told him to run, but Jongho was glued to his spot.

He knew he had to get his hyungs to help Mingi, but he was in too much of a shock.

It was weird. Usually he could handle the weird things that came with being a superhero, but this seemed like something else entirely to him.

He watched as Mingi struggled to stand up and stagger a little bit away from him. 

He saw Mingi straighten himself and relax his shoulders.

Jongho knew he was too close. He just felt like he was.

He took a couple hesitant steps back before he saw Mingi’s whole body light on fire. His eyes widened and he turned to sprint back towards the house.

He could feel the heat before he heard the explosion.

Jongho didn’t get seriously burned, but the heat was really intense and the explosion had enough force to knock him onto the grassy ground.

His ears rang.

He flipped onto his back as quickly as he could get his bearings. 

Jongho propped himself onto his elbows and saw all of the fire around him.

“-ho!” Jongho shook his head to try and get his ears to stop ringing.

“Jongho! Are you okay?” 

Jongho turned his head around a little sluggishly and saw a couple more of his hyungs running towards them.

His vision doubled for a second and his stomach twisted.

He squeezed his eyes shut to try and fight off the nausea he felt.

He felt the presence of someone beside him, then a hand shaking his shoulder. 

Jongho opened his eyes and saw Hongjoong staring at him with worry and a wall of fire behind him. He could see Hongjoong’s mouth move, but it took him a second to focus on what his hyung was saying.

“You okay?” Jongho nodded slowly.

He was about to respond and tell Hongjoong that he might need Yunho, but he was distracted by movement coming from behind the older.

San was running around with water surrounding him. It seemed like he was attempting to put the fire out, and mostly succeeding at it.

Jongho tried to stand up, ignoring Hongjoong’s protests, but a wave of dizziness washed over him as he stood straight. Hongjoong wrapped an arm around his waist and moved one of Jongho’s arms around his own shoulders to stabilize the younger.

Jongho looked to see where Mingi had gone and saw that in the middle of the inferno was the silhouette of a person.

“Hyung...is that-”

“Yeah. It is,” Hongjoong interrupted, “ Let’s get you inside, okay? Yunho can take a look at you.”

Jongho shook his head. He wanted to help Mingi in any way he could right now.

“We need to help him,” Jongho struggled to say. He really didn’t think that an explosion like that could hurt him so much.

“No, you need to get healed. Besides, Seonghwa’s got it covered. He knows how to deal with this kind of thing,” Hongjoong explained.

Jongho, becoming too tired to argue further, just nodded and let his head dip forward before catching it.

“Yep, you’re going inside,” Hongjoong said quickly, moving Jonho as fast and softly as he could.

\-------------------------------------------------- 

San was letting Wooyoung fly him around the raging fires on one of his metal discs.

He was trying his best to put out the flames and water down the surrounding area so the fire wouldn’t spread anymore.

San could see a flaming Mingi standing in the middle of all the devastation. 

The taller hero was covered in flames and standing in a tense position. His arms were flexed and his head was tilted back as if he were letting out an angry scream.

San thought that he looked like he was in a lot of pain, which he probably was given the situation.

“San!”

San whipped his head down to see Seonghwa calling for him.

“Put out the fire out closer to him so I can talk to him!” Seonghwa called.

San nodded and looked over to Wooyoung, who was standing a little ways away. Wooyoung made eye contact and nodded, his expression tensing as he moved his arms to use his ability.

San was jerked towards the fire hero and was tempted to just drop a giant pond-worth of water on him. Seonghwa had advised against that, sadly.

San put out the ground surrounding him just as Seonghwa jumped there.

Once the oldest nodded, indicating it was okay, Wooyoung began to move him around to the other part of the fire.

San and Wooyoung had just gotten finished with dinner, the first part of their date, when San got a call from a frantic Yunho.

The two immediately dropped what they were doing and rushed to the house. 

They could see the fire from the road and Wooyoung almost panicked.

It wasn’t exactly the first time Mingi lost control of fire and San had to put it out. This situation was just...a lot bigger.

Not to mention Mingi could still die, according to his hyungs.

San looked back down to Seonghwa and Mingi once he got all of the flames put out.

He was exhausted and Wooyoung was probably extra exhausted from flying San around for so long.

Seonghwa looked like he was talking to Mingi, and Mingi did look a little better than before. Maybe he’d be okay.

San felt the disc lurch and whipped his head to see a struggling Wooyoung.

“Bring me down, Woo!” San yelled to his boyfriend.

Wooyoung nodded, exhaustion evident all over his face and moved his hands to bring the disc back.

Once San hopped off, Wooyoung fell to his knees and San laid down beside him on the now wet grass.

\-------------------------------------------------

Red and orange.

That’s all Mingi was able to see.

He could hear plenty of the commotion around him, but he wasn’t really aware who, or what it was directed at.

It was calm for him. In whatever mindspace he was in at that moment, it was calm.

Mingi didn’t think he’d ever felt so at peace since his power emerged several years ago. Letting it all out felt nice.

“ _ Mingi!” _

Mingi tilted his head in confusion.

Who was calling his name?

_ “Mingi! Please listen to me!”  _

He couldn’t register who was speaking, but he tried listening anyways.

_ “You need to control your fire. You almost burned Jongho,”  _ the voice informed him.

Mingi could tell his eyes widened a bit at that statement.

He didn’t want to hurt their little bean.

Mingi’s breath came a little quicker and he tried to focus on the voice more.

“ _ Please try and calm down. You’re strong, Mingi. I know you can control this,”  _ the voice said.

Mingi tried to nod, barely registering what the voice was saying, but trying his best.

_ “Okay, you can do it. Just keep focus _ ing on my voice. You’re strong, and you can beat this. You can beat her,” Seonghwa said.

Mingi’s view of orange was slowly beginning to fade as he controlled his breathing.

“You’re doing amazing, Mingi. Can you see me?” Mingi shook his head, his mouth unable to form words.

He suddenly felt super exhausted.

He blinked a couple more times and tried to focus on what was in front of him.

More like,  _ who  _ was in front of him.

Seonghwa’s concerned gaze came into focus and Mingi gave him a weak smile.

Mingi felt very weak and his legs decided to give out on him.

He fell to his hands and knees and tried to look up at Seonghwa. The older quickly kneeled down in front of him, more concern flashing in his gaze.

“Mingi, are you okay?” Seonghwa asked.

Mingi nodded, “Yeah...I think I’m good.”

Seonghwa let out a small chuckle, “I’m glad. I was worried for a second.”

Mingi chuckled, but stopped abruptly when he remembered something happening to Jongho.

“Hyung! Is Jongho okay?!”

Seonghwa flinched at the sudden shout of concern for the youngest. He was about to say something when he heard footsteps behind him.

“Jongho is perfectly fine. He had a mild concussion from the force of the blast, but Yunho healed him up just fine,” Hongjoong said, grabbing the other two’s attention. 

Mingi started to chuckle, but soon the chuckles became sobs.

He didn’t like crying. He never really did it, but that moment was just a lot for him.

He just stared at the burnt grass under him with watery eyes.

“H-how did that...What was supposed to h-happen to me?” Mingi asked in between sobs.

Mingi looked up at his hyungs when they didn’t say anything for a couple seconds. The two were looking at each other as if silently asking if it was okay to tell him, or something.

Seonghwa sighed and looked back at Mingi.

“Decay makes your power overload and basically destroy you from the inside. Most of the time her power works how she wants it. Her and Havoc probably wanted you to explode and take us along with it, for lack of a better way to explain it.”

Mingi nodded and stared back down at the ground. “I hurt Jongho.”

“Mingi, you didn’t do anything wrong. You tried to get away from Jongho when you knew you were about to lose control, right?” Hongjoong asked.

Mingi swallowed the lump that formed in his throat.

“I...I guess? I can’t really remember a lot of it. But It was painful, I know that,” He explained to the older two.

Hongjoong gave him a sad smile and reached to wrap his arms around one of Mingi’s.

Mingi tried to make it easy for him, but his body was really sore and not cooperating.

“Hwa, help me get him inside. I think he needs to rest and get some pain meds,” Hongjoong said.

Pretty soon, Mingi found himself on the upstairs couch as opposed to the one downstairs or his own bed. He was lying down with his head on Yunho’s lap and almost drifting off to sleep. The older man talked about how Jongho was doing, what Wooyoung and San did to help, and how they were going to have to tell Yeosang about everything that he had missed.

“You know, you’re still really warm, but like, in a good way,” the older pointed out.

Mingi gave him a small chuckle, “I’m glad it’s good.”

The two sat in silence for a bit until Yunho spoke up again.

“I was worried, you know.”

Mingi’s mouth pressed into a firm line.

“You looked like you were in a lot of pain, which is understandable,” Yunho started, “The thing is, I couldn’t see any source of pain like I usually am able to.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah, when I couldn’t see that, I looked at your core, and it was brighter than it had ever been, but it was… I don’t know, too bright?”

Mingi pursed his lips in concentration. Yunho had only told him about the whole ‘core’ thing. “What does my core look like now?”

Yunho took a couple of seconds to look over the younger.

“It looks brighter than it did before today, but...in a good way, I guess. Do you think that lady accidentally made you more powerful?”

Mingi shook his head on Yunho’s lap, “I don’t think so. At least, not that I can feel yet.”

“I guess we’ll find out soon, though.”

Mingi chuckled at the healer’s response.

Maybe Mingi did feel a bit different after the whole ordeal.

He thought that maybe Seonghwa and Hongjoong were hiding something from him, from all of them, though.

There was just something about the way they handled the situation that made them seem like they knew more than they said they do.

That could wait though.

Mingi really needed a nap.

  
  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> I hope you guys liked it!
> 
> Let me know what you thought in the comments.
> 
> Hongjoong's is next, then we're finally gonna get Seonghwa and some answers!!!
> 
> Thank for reading Lil' Birdies!!!
> 
> Twitter: [@Chirp_B](https://twitter.com/Chirp_B)
> 
> Ko-fi: [ChirpB](https://ko-fi.com/chirpb)


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